What do you do with a billion grams of surplus weed? • Hacker News Board

Re: What do you do with a billion grams of surplus weed?

#201

Post by emteycz » Sun, Aug 08, 2021, 8:15 AM UTC

effingwewt wrote: post #194

xyhopguy wrote: post #166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

its not hard to get top shelf ounces for $100-140 in oregon...

It very much is from dispensaries, which is what is being discussed. And this does happen everywhere, where prices in dispensaries 'miraculously align' right down to the daily/weekly specials etc. What should be happening is the price going down as shops compete with each other for business- which, incidentally, they all did ~10 years ago. That also miraculously stopped at all shops simultaneously. So it's definitely…

Why doesn't a phone/web delivery service outcompete them?

Re: What do you do with a billion grams of surplus weed?

#202

Post by Closi » Sun, Aug 08, 2021, 9:20 AM UTC

asdfasgasdgasdg wrote: post #51

Closi wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> those who access medical cannabis legally pay on average 34 percent more for their medicine than if they bought from the unregulated market. I mean, that’s true with most things isn’t it? If you buy meat from the dodgy guy in a pub then it’s cheaper. Bloke selling televisions from a van? Cheaper. Cigarettes from a corner store that have been imported from a low tax country? Cheaper. Getting the electric/gas done in…

> If you buy meat from the dodgy guy in a pub then it’s cheaper. I don't know about that. First of all, I've never had a dodgy guy in a pub try to sell me meat. Second of all, the market for meat, at least in the U.S., is relatively unconstrained and therefore the prices are pretty reflective of the cost to produce (including the costs for the various middlemen in the chain, etc.). So with meat, if some dodgy guy is…

Ha, maybe getting dodgy people selling you meat in a pub is a unique UK experience then!

Of course there are differences between all of these analogies, because there isn't anything exactly like the drugs trade and everything will have a difference, I just mean that in every example I can think of where I could buy the same product from illegitimate and legitimate sources, the illegitimate source is cheaper (so I don't know why we would assume it would be any different here).

> In that case, the cigs are cheaper because the tax is not being paid.

Well that's interesting, as Weed sales have between 27% - 38% tax in California and OP said that there was a 34% price increase compared to illegitimate sources, so actually the tax rate is approximately equal to the difference in cost here.

(Source: https://www.leafly.com/news/lifestyle/california-weed-tax-gu...)

Re: What do you do with a billion grams of surplus weed?

#203

Post by Closi » Sun, Aug 08, 2021, 9:22 AM UTC

blt wrote: post #119

slapfrog wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Cigarettes from a corner store that have been imported from a low tax country? Probably just smuggled across state lines. Bought in a state with low taxes, then sold in a state with high taxes. The store pockets the taxes instead of passing them along to the state, which it can do because the cigarettes being sold were smuggled so the high-tax state doesn't have any record of them existing.

The comment you are replying to does not look like it was written by someone from the USA.

You are correct, I'm from the UK!

Re: What do you do with a billion grams of surplus weed?

#204

Post by Closi » Sun, Aug 08, 2021, 9:26 AM UTC

mollusk wrote: post #199

smnrchrds wrote: post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was under the impression that anything bought within the EU single market can be legally taken anywhere within the single market, at least for personal use, without taxes and duties. Is that not the case?

You can as an individual. And people do that, it's sometimes refered to as alcotourism, when you cross the border to buy cheaper alcohol in the neighbouring country. Finns go to Estonia. Estonians go to Latvia. But as a company, you can't just import cigarettes or alcohol from another country and sell them at home. Cigarettes and alcohol have specific tax stamps on their packaging that make them restricted for sale i…

Absolutely - it's also worth saying that there is a sophisticated tracking system to trace the manufacture of cigarettes from where they were created to the point in which they are sold (and all intermediary stops) in order to ensure that the correct tax is levied (despite there being no physical borders). This means that you can scan an individual cigarette box and see where it was manufactured, what tax was paid on it and every point it has travelled through in terms of the distribution chain.

This isn't fully implemented yet, but will be within the next few years.

Re: What do you do with a billion grams of surplus weed?

#205

Post by bdjddd77 » Sun, Aug 08, 2021, 1:13 PM UTC

Talanes wrote: post #127

bdjddd77 wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's fucking nuts, 40, looking 50, got IDs buying a pack of beers in Walgreens I think, just stopping two night usa back to Europe. She wasn't happy that she couldn't scan the EU driving license but eventually she relented, same next night, I was perplexed, do they not enpower their workers? Uk is over 18, but ask for id if you have any doubt less than 21, 3yr margin, common sense

>3yr margin, common sense I cannot guess ages with anywhere near that precision. In California the usual standard is if you look under 30.

Fair enough, but I closer 50 than 30, and look so, and the same girl did the next thing the next night, it was a store near an out of town Airbnb so I doubt my first interaction was forgetton

Re: What do you do with a billion grams of surplus weed?

#206

Post by 0xld » Sun, Aug 08, 2021, 1:37 PM UTC

hluska wrote: post #190

gruez wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Supply management isn't needed if we're already competitive exporters of a given product. sounds more like the real goal is protectionism rather than "having a stable supply of food"

And again, you’re being needlessly argumentative and couching it all in very poor communications skills. Your comments have had absolutely no value. Please stop - it’s low brow and boring.

The way you constantly point out their (possibly ESL) grammar is seriously bad vibes. We can all understand them just fine.

Re: What do you do with a billion grams of surplus weed?

#207

Post by 0xld » Sun, Aug 08, 2021, 1:54 PM UTC

dylan604 wrote: post #114

chillwaves wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How much easier can it be than literally growing from a plant?

I love when the inexperienced stand up like an expert. There's a huge difference between having a plant that is alive and a plant that is producing quality flower of enough quantity to make a difference. There is much better info on the web a simple search will show you compared to me describing to someone that already thinks it's super easy.

Correct - there's a big difference between growing standard weed and high grade shit.

However, I feel like people in the thread are slightly overstating how hard it is to learn how to grow good weed. I live in a country where smoking and growing weed is illegal.

I know people (yes, more than 1) who grow their own using best practices learned from YouTube (and others). pH, heat, nutrients, CO2, light levels, everything is monitored and tweaked. I've been in grow tents with 2 plants inside and grow houses with >50 (highly, highly illegal).

It's really not THAT hard, especially if you can follow basic protocols (I.E probably most of HN). It's not exactly rocket science! There are (genuinely) illiterate people doing it as we speak.

Re: What do you do with a billion grams of surplus weed?

#208

Post by tenfourwookie » Sun, Aug 08, 2021, 1:56 PM UTC

effingwewt wrote: post #194

xyhopguy wrote: post #166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

its not hard to get top shelf ounces for $100-140 in oregon...

It very much is from dispensaries, which is what is being discussed. And this does happen everywhere, where prices in dispensaries 'miraculously align' right down to the daily/weekly specials etc. What should be happening is the price going down as shops compete with each other for business- which, incidentally, they all did ~10 years ago. That also miraculously stopped at all shops simultaneously. So it's definitely…

I didn't want to respond to the $100 ounce comment because I haven't hit Portland or other larger cities, but I have to agree with you. I can't find even 1/2 ounces for $100. There are shops in Bend selling $75 eighths.

It's greed. It's collusion. I don't believe the “No one's making any money” nonsense in the media.

We're not making any money, but look at that $156,000 Mercedes SUV parked outside in the reserved spot.

Re: What do you do with a billion grams of surplus weed?

#209

Post by tenfourwookie » Sun, Aug 08, 2021, 2:00 PM UTC

randyrand wrote: post #193

tenfourwookie wrote: post #134

We've been hearing about surplus for several years now, and yet the price of weed is going up, not down. I regularly see $400 retail ounces in Oregon for top shelf. Supply/demand should push the price to the floor with this Surplus gargantus, and yet prices continue to climb. It's like ECON 101 doesn't apply to pot. What are they going to do? Dump it in ocean? What I want to know is how retail is maintaining these ob…

Location. Weed is sold in stores at local prices. Theres lack of competition.

Some areas maybe, but I'm seeing brisk competition across the product board without the related price competition you would expect. Prices are not going down in a surplus market. That's greed.

Re: What do you do with a billion grams of surplus weed?

#210

Post by tenfourwookie » Sun, Aug 08, 2021, 2:05 PM UTC

xyhopguy wrote: post #166

tenfourwookie wrote: post #159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, but the same is true in Oregon. Massive surplus. It was some silly number like enough weed to make 1 billion joints. I'll find the number.

its not hard to get top shelf ounces for $100-140 in oregon...

Retail? No way. Unless you're talking about those 1 oz vacuum bags of burnt yellow-green bud that appears to have been grown in a hydroponic stew for $100/ (hoboweed; spray-painted hemp :D), I haven't seen prices remotely close to that. Not even quality halves at that price. Not even in Colorado, and Colorado is the best bang for your $ in the USA.

*Fall harvest prices might dip that low.